Companies, especially business organizations, invest significant amounts of scarce resources, money and manpower hours, in training. A recent study of five major consulting organizations revealed that their average training budget exceeded $163 million annually. Organizations generally agree that training of employees is a necessary expense, whether the employees are termed “members” of an organization, or “associates,” or “employees.” It is not so easy, however, to agree on specifically what training should be undertaken, or by which employees, whether of the organization as a whole, or by portions of the organization.
Organizations may be faced with many choices in providing training for their employees. For example, it may be desirable to provide employees with training in a newly-updated state-of-the-art computer software program, while at the same time those same employees might also benefit from cross-training in related disciplines. It may also be desirable to train those same employees in subject matter specific to the organization, such as the capabilities and possibilities of other remote portions of the organization.
In addition to training courses which may be considered desirable by employees or managers of the organization, some courses may be required by local, regional, or national law, such as a continuing-education requirement for engineers, doctors or lawyers. In any case, these courses may be required for the employee to participate in the particular profession, and the courses may also be of interest to or helpful to client-facing or direct-billing professionals.
Training is unlike other corporate investments. It is difficult to determine the benefit to the organization. Investments in working capital, bonds, stock-buy-backs, and certificates of deposit have a measurable return. The return may be measured in an annual profit, or a growth of capital, or an annual return on the investment. With training, there is a possibility that the employees and the organization might benefit from any or all of the training course available to employees. While the cost of training may be measured, there is presently no way to easily quantify the benefit of that training and to use the data in a manner that will demonstrate to the organization that there is a tangible benefit to the organization from its training budget.